ReelAbilities: Documentary film festival showcases lives of people with disabilities

Jody Feinberg The Patriot Ledger

Friday

Mar 22, 2019 at 3:08 PMMar 25, 2019 at 12:06 PM

A career as a rock musician is a long shot for anyone, let alone a man with cerebral palsy. The improbable journey of Los Angeles bandleader Brandon Mendenhall is a fascinating, inspirational story told in the documentary “Mind over Matter.”

“It took me about 10 times of seeing the film before I didn’t cry,” Mendenhall said of the movie, which has won eight awards since it premiered at film festivals late last year. “I’ve kind of become the Rocky of music. People relate to my journey and my willingness to keep going no matter what obstacles there are.”

“Mind Over Matter,” which will be screened March 29 at Boston University, will be one of 11 documentaries in the ReelAbilities festival from March 26 to April 3 in 10 locations. In telling the stories of people with a range of physical, intellectual and mental health challenges, these films go beneath the surface to reveal the complex individuals whose experiences are both particular to them and universal in many ways.

“No one expected me to do much of anything,” said Mendenhall, who dreamed of being a rock guitarist since he discovered the hard-rock band Korn and found an outlet for his frustration and yearning. “But everyone has dreams of wanting to become something.”

Other films include: “Far from the Tree,” based on the bestseller of the same name about families raising children with disabilities; “Pick of the Litter,” which follows the two-year training of puppies becoming guide dogs; “Defiant Lives,” the story of the activists who have fought for disability rights in the United States; and “Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey of Chamique Holdsclaw,” about a basketball player considered a female Michael Jordan and her struggle with mental illness.

Born two months prematurely to an 18-year-old single mother, Mendenhall was raised primarily by his grandparents in a trailer park about 60 miles south of Chicago. When he finally was able to walk independently at age 4, he received the cerebral palsy diagnosis, which explained the brain damage that affected his left side and caused him to walk with a jerky gate, to move his fingers only in unison and to speak with an impediment.

"They saw the disability first and the person second," said Mendenhall in the film, about the children who bullied him and the adults who expected little of him. "I thought if I can get over it and I'm the one who's living it, why can't you?"

Within the larger story of his passion for music are other stories that many viewers will find relatable. Mendenhall was severely bullied as a child, endured the pain and loneliness of long hospitalizations after corrective foot surgery, overcame a cocaine addiction, and received crucial support at vulnerable times from his grandmother and friends. It’s also a story of how the love for his doubting grandfather spurred him to prove that he could succeed.

“My grandfather followed the lead of the doctors and told me I would never be a musician,” he said. “That lit a fire in my soul to prove them wrong. I understand that he was trying to protect me from disappointment, because people with disabilities were put into a box then. Now, a big part of the Mendenhall Band is to break the stigma and show that people with disabilities can do much more than what people expect.”

Mendenhall learned to move his fingers up and down the strings of the guitar neck through hours of disciplined practice that provided intensive physical therapy. Eventually, he could move most of his fingers independently, and the confidence from that achievement helped him with his speech and coordination. He obtained a college degree in engineering and production and worked tirelessly to find opportunities to perform.

In the film, viewers will see Mendenhall and various versions of his band struggle to get gigs and attract fans, a repeatedly dispiriting experience until the Mendenhall Experiment won a battle of the bands competition, secured a manager and signed a recording contract with Lucent Records, six years to the day that his first band performed. The elation is palpable as the band performs at the After Shock festival in 2016, on the same main stage as Korn, who invited Mendenhall back onstage after his performance.

“It’s kind of a handbook into how to make it in today’s rock 'n' roll industry,” Mendenhall said.

But the film also tells the unique and serendipitous story of Mendenhall’s relationship with Korn guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer. As a teenager, Mendenhall waited with other fans outside a concert venue for the band to arrive. Shaffer noticed the large, colorful tattoo of his face on his back and sent his roadie to invite Mendenhall backstage. The teenager thanked Shaffer for inspiring him, since Shaffer played guitar despite losing part of a finger.

Six years later, Shaffer spotted Mendenhall in the front row of a Jimmy Kimmel TV show taping, which started a 12-year pivotal friendship. Shaffer, who admired Mendenhall’s talent and grit, advised him to start his own band and write his own music, a decision that led to his success.

Since "Mind over Matter" director Sebastien Paquet completed filming in 2016, the Mendenhall Experiment has released an EP and toured six times. It will make a 12-day East Coast tour in April with the band Flaw, and plans to release a full album by early 2020.

Paquet has been friends with Mendenhall since they met at a Korn show in 2004; they bonded over their shared passion for the band. Mendenhall and Paquet, who has been the band’s videographer and photographer, will attend a discussion after Friday’s screening, and the film can be viewed online.

In recent years, Mendenhall has become an advocate for others with cerebral palsy, serving on the board of United Cerebral Palsy of Los Angeles and winning its first Trailblazer Award.

In a particularly moving scene, a 25-year-old woman with physical limitations beams as she meets Mendenhall at an event for others with cerebral palsy, and her mother talks about the joy she feels at seeing her daughter react to the music.

Mendenhall said his disability has given him a chance to serve others.

“I wanted from a very young age to put my disability behind me and not let it define me as a person,” he said. “But it’s kind of a Catch-22 because cerebral palsy has made me who I am and given me a purpose to help other people.”